One of the most troubling aspects of the shooting in Parkland, Florida was that the FBI has been tipped off at least twice about the suspect. They also had been called to the suspect’s home for problems 39 times. He’d also caused trouble at his Stoneman Douglas and had been expelled and banned from carrying a backpack there because he had been found with bullets in his bag.

All of those signs should have stopped him from getting a gun. But somehow that didn’t flag him for local police.

The Broward County Sheriff tried to justify the actions of his office, saying they should be given more ability to deal with the mentally ill.

During a CNN Town Hall meeting in Florida on Wednesday, Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel addressed the question that his office may have failed to properly evaluate and act on the case of the 19-year-old suspect with a history of behavior issues, who opened fire at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland last week, killing 17 people.

“In Florida, we call it a Baker Act. It allows us to take an individual to be, against their will, involuntarily, to go to a mental health facility and be treated,” Israel said in response to a question from an audience member citing the FBI’s acknowledgment that it failed to act on tips about the shooter.

He also argued that an 18 year old shouldn’t be able to have a rifle.

That’s when NRA spokesperson Dana Loesch called out the sheriff and asked the obvious question everybody has on their minds. How was he able to get a gun after everything he had done? What is enough?

“Thirty-nine visits did not meet that standard? 39 visits, assaulting students, assaulting parents, taking bullets and knives to school did not meet that standard?” she asked, referring to the record of alleged incidents by the gunman, Nikolas Cruz, before the high school shooting and the visits authorities made to his home in response.

The sheriff defensively asked what Loesch was speaking of specifically, to which she responded with the example of threatening messages the shooter had sent classmates.

“They were threatened with death. They were threatened that they were going to bleed. They were threatened that they were going to be killed,” Loesch told Israel.

“He had already taken bullets and knives to school. He had already assaulted people. He had assaulted his parent. He had assaulted other students. 39 visits,” she went on. “And this was known to the intelligence and law enforcement community.”

Israel tried to fight back saying Loesch didn’t know the facts and that there weren’t that many police reports, despite that is the number that has been reported repeatedly in media.

Loesch is bang on.

This was an absolute failure of both the FBI and the local police. At least the FBI admitted it and is reviewing how they can improve. This guy is still scrambling trying to cover his failure to act.

If what is reported about the shooter isn’t sufficient to stop someone from getting a gun, then what is? What standard is sufficient?

But meanwhile, while Israel let this maniac get a gun, he’d deprive those who didn’t have that past of having a rifle. Completely illogical.

But perhaps his past explains it.

Broward County Sheriff Steve Israel was nominated as a member of Hillary Clinton’s Florida Leadership Council during the 2016 presidential campaign. Prior to CNN’s town hall, Israel said that lawmakers “won’t get re-elected” if they don’t support gun control.

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Lieutenant Colonel West served 22 years in the United States Army and was elected to serve in the United States Congress in 2010. Allen is a Fox News Contributor and author of Guardian of the Republic: An American Ronin’s Journey to Faith, Family and Freedom.